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Koan discussion
misecmisc1
I am a HinduIndia Veteran
Hi All,
In the koan of polishing a tile, when Mazu was sitting in zazen, then Nanyen asked what is your intention behind zazen, then Mazu replied my intention is to become a Buddha.
So is zazen an act which leads to becoming Buddha, or is zazen becoming Buddha in itself? If zazen is becoming Buddha in itself, then why specifically the posture of zazen, instead it should be in every posture which can be made in any situation? Please suggest. Thanks in advance.
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There is nothing special about zazen. There is everything special about attention/awareness. We are all aware of that ... through practice ...
Time to polish. No tiling required ...
As I understand it, the posture is most conducive to correct attention. Eventually you carry the attention with you to other postures and then movements, all the way to washing the dishes... Which is also an activity of polishing
They are just trying to clean off those yucky clinging aggregates - oops, wrong tradition.
I could swear it went differently.
Baso decided to become a Buddha through sitting meditation exclusively and so Nangaku picked up a tile and started polishing it to make a mirror. Baso said "How do you expect to make a mirror by simply polishing a tile?" Nangaku replied with "How do you expect to become a Buddha simply through sitting?"
I think the koan is about right effort and view as well as planting the seed of engaged Buddhism (compassion through action).
Was Baso wrong in thinking this thing? Please suggest. Thanks in advance.
Yes, he was.
You don't become a Buddha just by sitting, just as you can not make a tile into a mirror simply by rubbing it.
@David's post isself-explanatory...
Then how did Sidhartha became Buddha, because he also meditated for 6 years? Please suggest. Thanks in advance.
Not so. The Buddha travelled, studied and researched for 6 years. He sat under the Bodhi tree for 6 days and nights until he was enlightened.
The duration of his meditation varies. Other sources state 49 days, but really, the precise time is immaterial. The times given, indicate a lengthy period.
as far as what I have heard/seen in the videos made on Buddha's life, it seems that he had 2 teachers during his almost 6 years spiritual journey - in which he tried all the ascetic practices. he reached may be the fourth jhana under one teacher and then the eighth jhana under the second teacher, which was the maximum limit these teachers have reached themselves. so after realizing the ascetic starving practices was leading him to his death based on a remark given by a village girl to him that - how would you attain enlightenment if you will die, then the Buddha remembered his childhood days in which he went into jhana while sitting below a tree. so he thought of practicing in that way - the middle way - without going to extremes. then he started eating to recover his health and then sat under bodhi tree and attained awakening. so his 6 years of spiritual practice may be largely considered to be a meditation practice in one form or the other.
My guess: As long as you're trying, you miss the point. The only possibility is to keep on trying.
To bring the koan to life, we need to know the history of Chan/Zen as well as the students who first struggled with it did.
Way back in the 700s in China, the Buddhism that had invaded China had already given birth to several distinct types of Zen practice. This was before the collection of Koans even, which was a later Japanese invention using the study guides passed around the Chinese temples.
Anyway, Baso left a set of writings that recounted his awakening, and it was this basic encounter as a young monk with a Master. Baso was attempting to follow the "quiet meditation" school of Zen, where you sit in meditation like the Buddha and practice quiet mind until that becomes your everyday mind. That's the entire, simple yet powerful practice then and now.
The trouble was, he'd chosen Nanyue's temple to do it in. Nanyue was the Master who famously invented the "active" teaching technique, where shouts and hits and irrational, shocking responses were used to startle the student out of their preconceptions and into their Buddha mind. He used nonsense like trying to polish a tile to create a mirror in order to illustrate a point. Nanyue knew enlightenment was demonstrated not in solitary meditation, but in how you act and respond to the people around you once you get off the cushion.
Baso went on to adopt the active practice of his own Master, and over the centuries the encounter became a koan and long outlived the monks who first wrote it down.
The koan or quandary is as powerful today as back then. It's not a criticism of meditation which remained a big part of Zen, but of reducing enlightenment to a goal that can be achieved if you only put in so many hours of sitting, or memorize so many sutras, or bow a thousand times a day at the altar. Like polishing a clay tile. The tile becomes smooth and shiny, but it remains a tile.
My answer:
Smash the tile! What do you need a mirror for, anyway? Don't you know your own face?
Why not both?!
Tee Hee @Cinorjer
Well said. Those Zennith Koan Brothers are like the Buddhist smash and grab, snatch team.
First they break out of the bedazzled samsara dharma jewellery store. Sit outside like diamonds, begging for Nothing.
Oh he iz naughty ...
Call the Dharma Police. Back inside. Arrested for looking in the mirror ...
the posture in which the actualization can occur - is it only the posture of zazen? so what needs to be done in zazen - should we only try to maintain the body posture as specified by Dogen in Fukanzazengi and just try to keep our attention on the body posture to see if it gets moved from the recommended idealized posture for zazen and try to bring the body back to that idealized posture for zazen? what exactly needs to be done in zazen? please suggest. thanks in advance.
Zazen leading to becoming Buddha - can logically make sense - But how is zazen becoming Buddha in itself?
@misecmisc1 zazen is not the only way to become awake, nor is it the only acceptable position to place your body in. The body assists the mind in its pursuits, and if you focus too awful much on the body, that assistance will go out the window.
It makes me wonder why the reclining posture lying down is not used more often? After all that is another one the Buddha is sometimes shown in.
I use it regularly, and not just for watching TV.
Yes, and usually it's accompanied by the caption or explanation "Sleeping Buddha".
That's probably why....
is it possible that there is a translation hijinx going on there? Not that SG never slept, of course he did, but that pose always looked to me more like the kind of "imma lie down here and read a book" pose. Perhaps the original term was "still" or "pausing" or something, and it was translated to "resting" and "sleeping" Buddha?
It's possible, I suppose, but I have come across many illustrations of the Buddha reclining, and the only description I have ever seen of such an image - no matter where the statue or image is based - is 'sleeping'.
Charming as it might sound, I've never seen "still" or "pausing" or even "imma lie down here and read a book".
Though that sounds neat....
The statues of Gautama lying on his right side are meant to signify the position he adopted when he died ... or anyway that's my understanding. No need for any dead Buddhas lolling around the house.
Well never let me hear you say "If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!" then....
is zazen just about being in the present moment? any ideas please. thanks in advance.
BUDDHISM is about being in the Present Moment (among other things). That's what Mindfulness is.
Zazen is about developing Insight into the Nature of Existence.
Rinzai studies Koans.
Soto prefers an approach where the mind has no object at all, known as shikantaza
Read more here.
You're welcome.